22:11 - Hex_Omegaflight, change your title from 'Stamp Tramp' to 'Master Of The Lists'. 15 lists in 4 months, lol

22:02 - mzyeah Neachy. I've been so out of the metal globe for 2.5 months and have checked only 4 albums: Eerie( 2014), that black metal album with red cover form Iceland, desolate shrine and Abyssal Gods. All of them are very good :D

2006 was the year of THE discovery, and Metal Storm was probably the first magazine to review Diablo Swing Orchestra and predict a wonderful future success to the band. I remember the day when I first listened to the band and said "what the hell is that?", for sure The Butcher's Ballroom was a great surprise and one of the most unexpected album of the last 10 years… I was awaiting a lot their new release, Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious, with a little fear to be honest, the level of the previous release being extremely high but now that I listened this release a lot of time, I can tell you that Diablo Swing Orchestra didn't miss the goal one more time!

Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is one more time original, avantgardist and surprising. If the band still follows the recipe of their previous album and mix together, some Metal with Swing and symphonic music this is obvious that they're also more mature. The songs are all deep and catchy yes but not so easy on a side. It swings it's dancing and stays in your head for a long time but I don't know why, I cannot say that this album smell commercial music. I just think that Diablo Swing Orchestra is in the category of the bands who just understand how music works. One more time their songs flirt with conventional metal genres (like symphonic metal) but never cross the line and in the end remains pure and not copycats or trendy songs. With this new album, [band] Diablo Swing Orchestra[/band] proves that they have invented a genre, something unconventional and that their first album was not something lucky. Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious follows the step of The Butcher's Ballroom with more maturity and deepness in the composition. This is not simple at all and even a bit different than on the previous album with more craziness but some songs are maybe less easy of access too…

One other excellent point of the release comes from its production. One more time the album is released in a really nice digipack but the strongest point of Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is its recording. This is simply perfect, we can hear all the instruments, especially the trumpets etc, same with the voice of Annlouice which is really good but also really well recorded and mixed. This is really professional, at the top level of what we can find with the most famous active metal bands.

I don't know if Sing-Along Songs For The Damned & Delirious is better than The Butcher's Ballroom which was a killer, but for sure this is not worst! Maybe that the surprise is not the same now that we know what kind of Metal plays, but still Diablo Swing Orchestra rocks and this new album is not boring, at the opposite it find the way to be unpredictable again… No doubt Diablo Swing Orchestra is a great band, we'll see if the next album will be as good as the two first ones but if they manage to do it, then I can predict that Diablo Swing Orchestra will become the new reference and "must see/have" band in this category.

Nice review, but I see a contradiction in the comments and ratings, for example the production, you call it perfect, but give it a 9... and in fact it's not perfect, well not entirely. There's a very annoying clarinette on one song that sounds like it was recorded in a cave or something...
But on the whole this album is near to perfection, its only recurrent problem being the poor use of guitar, compared to their previous release: all the riffs seem to have been thought to fit the cello's restrictions.

Imo this album is even crazier than the previous album and I didn't really appreciate it untill the third spin, but now I really love it. Great album, really special of course, the rating and the review are spot on.

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean. I'd rate this one anywhere between 8 or 8.5. 9 for Ballroom. Good review.

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean.

Finally someone that agrees with me on this album. I really like The Butcher's Ballroom, but this one just doesn't have it imo, it is all over the place and misses the much needed focus. At times they are crazy for being crazy sake, totally pointless.
I would rate it between a 7 and 7.5

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean.

Finally someone that agrees with me on this album. I really like The Butcher's Ballroom, but this one just doesn't have it imo, it is all over the place and misses the much needed focus. At times they are crazy for being crazy sake, totally pointless.
I would rate it between a 7 and 7.5

Count me in your little gang too, for me this album is disappointing compared to the flawless, imo, debut...

TBB was much more cohesive for me. When I'm listening to an album, I like it to be an effortless listen i.e. I don't have to "suffer" through it until it grabs me. After multiple listens, this still doesn't do much for me which makes this album one of my top 10 disappointments of the year.

Good album yet probably not as strong as the debut....I love "A Tap Dancer's Dilemma" its a very similar opening track to that of the debut album, the swing elements really come through in the song. Its a pity they somewhat go off on a tangent for the rest of the album, I would have loved it if they explored the "swing" elements a bit more and not just incorporate it as a once off thing - it would have added the much-needed cohesion to the album.

Despite all that, still very unique and original album, very enjoyable!

Imo this album is even crazier than the previous album and I didn't really appreciate it untill the third spin, but now I really love it. Great album, really special of course, the rating and the review are spot on.

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean. I'd rate this one anywhere between 8 or 8.5. 9 for Ballroom. Good review.

It's funny. I like this one more than the debut because it is more crazy.

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean. I'd rate this one anywhere between 8 or 8.5. 9 for Ballroom. Good review.

It's funny. I like this one more than the debut because it is more crazy.

It's more sloppy than anything and fails miserably to flow as flawlessly as The Butcher's Ballroom did. I've gave the disc enough spins to know for certain it'll never grow on me. Actually the more I listen to it, the less difficult it is for me to argue with Marcel's score.

Very well review Jeff. This is a great album as you said and it has a good production but still, in my opinion, the debut album is my favorite. Why? Well because the unusual sound they produces and their originality was so amazing that it is still one of my best album in my collection. As you said , Jeff, they produce a more mature sound but still their first originality sound is not include in this album. Overall i will give them 7 .

One thing I enjoyed in a band (and specially in DSO) is their predictable unpredictability, i.e. I do not know exactly what they will do, but I always expect what they might do. The first time I listen a new album I am always doing something else, like writing, or surfing, paying attention to the music but not entirely focused. This way my attention is drawn to musics/riffs really catchy.

TBB caught my attention almost in every song and when I realised I was listening to it over and over again. This new album also caught my attention, but in a terrible oposite way.

I thought the music is so crazy, with no consistence. I felt dizzy everytime I listened to it. Totally disapointed.

IMO it's nowhere near as good as The Butcher's Ballroom. They're much crazier than before but sometimes too crazy if you know what I mean. I'd rate this one anywhere between 8 or 8.5. 9 for Ballroom. Good review.

See I'm the opposite. Ballroom really didn't do it for me, except for the first coouple of tracks. In Sing along songs you have essentially what I expected from Ballroom; a cohesive mix of swing and avant-garde. Ballroom just felt too power metal ish for my mind. Its still good, but this is, to quote the review, more mature and developed. SAS holds together as an album, where Ballroom didn't.

The other reason I enjoy SAS more than TBB is vocals. On TBB the she-singer annoyed me to no end - but here she sounds appropriate in everything she does.

To me, TBB is a great debut, but still sounds like a debut. SAS sounds like a band who know where they're going, and what they're doing.